July 2017

April 08, 2011

Challenge thyself

If you're anything like me, you tend to stick to what you're comfortable with when designing your layouts. (I'm sensing a theme here, first journaling, now this.) It's certainly easy that way, but it's also easy to get in to a rut. It could be page size, photos, how simple or complex your pages are, technique, or what type of embellishments you use. We do what we know, what we're good at, what we like.

But sometimes, it's good to step out of our comfort zone and try a new style or technique. I challenged four WCSers to do just this, and here's what they came up with.

Keshet is not a stamper, but for this challenge she decided to break out the stamps and see what happened.

While I have a nice-sized stamp collection, I don't actually use my stamps very often! I tend to use premade embellishments more than ones I create myself, and I'm never sure how the stamping will actually turn out on my layout. I found with this layout that I can actually use stamps much more freely if I cut them out and place them on the layout--that way, if I don't get a perfect image the first time, I won't sweat it! To create the stamped clouds on this layout, I used Studio Calico stamps that coordinate with Fiskars cloud punches to stamp and then punch out my clouds. I love the homespun charm they add to my layout, and with no stress, either! I look forward to trying stamping again soon now that I'm learning how to make it work for me.

Celeste challenged herself to try misting on a layout, something she'd been hesitant to do.

I have been resistant to misting ever since I had to do it for an article in Simple in 2008. I am not a fan or anything messy or imprecise, so you'll rarely find me using paint or ink. I've been known to say "I'm not a mister." I took the easy way out here too! I put my paper in a box and squirted just a couple times to get a little on the background paper. The box helped me with the mess and after I sprayed I rolled a paper towel roll across the cardstock to sop up the excess (less mess). This kept the paper from warping another one of my fears! I think the ink gave some texture and interest to my page - a bit of fun perhaps. I plan on trying it again - maybe next time with a mask.

For Donna, it's rub-ons. Yet she just couldn't resist these Studio Calico rub-ons.

I took Amy's Bits and Pieces challenge a couple of weeks back and I did so mainly for the rub-on part of the challenge. I don't really know why, but I just hardly ever use them. Because of that I hardly ever buy them anymore either - I have to be really tempted by the design. I tried to resist these days of the week rub-ons from Studio Calico but they got me in the end! Since a lot of what I tend to scrapbook is our everyday lives I figured I'd have a good chance of using them. For this page I just collected lots of my favorite shots from this spring so far. I hope I never forget these simple everyday moments. It's a huge part of why I scrapbook.

Amy tends to stick with flat embellishments on her pages, so for this layout, she challenged herself to use thick embellishments Bonus - she made them herself!

The "outside my box" thing I did was the flowers. I love this look but it makes me deeply anxious to have something that thick on a layout—so I've never done it before. What I discovered is that making the flowers was really fun. It let me dig into my stash of fabrics for patterns I couldn't have found in paper. Will I make something this thick again? Not often (because I'm still not certain how well it will fit into an album!) but yes, absolutely sometimes! (PS, I made the flower by cutting wavy strips of three different fabrics. Each strip is narrower than the next one. I sewed a gathering row of stitches---just the longest stitch your machine will do---gathered them, and then formed them into circles. I also broke out my glue gun to put it all together. This is also outside of my comfort zone, quite literally, as I always manage to burn myself when I use the glue gun. No exception with the flowers!)

Comments

Challenge thyself

If you're anything like me, you tend to stick to what you're comfortable with when designing your layouts. (I'm sensing a theme here, first journaling, now this.) It's certainly easy that way, but it's also easy to get in to a rut. It could be page size, photos, how simple or complex your pages are, technique, or what type of embellishments you use. We do what we know, what we're good at, what we like.

But sometimes, it's good to step out of our comfort zone and try a new style or technique. I challenged four WCSers to do just this, and here's what they came up with.

Keshet is not a stamper, but for this challenge she decided to break out the stamps and see what happened.

While I have a nice-sized stamp collection, I don't actually use my stamps very often! I tend to use premade embellishments more than ones I create myself, and I'm never sure how the stamping will actually turn out on my layout. I found with this layout that I can actually use stamps much more freely if I cut them out and place them on the layout--that way, if I don't get a perfect image the first time, I won't sweat it! To create the stamped clouds on this layout, I used Studio Calico stamps that coordinate with Fiskars cloud punches to stamp and then punch out my clouds. I love the homespun charm they add to my layout, and with no stress, either! I look forward to trying stamping again soon now that I'm learning how to make it work for me.

Celeste challenged herself to try misting on a layout, something she'd been hesitant to do.

I have been resistant to misting ever since I had to do it for an article in Simple in 2008. I am not a fan or anything messy or imprecise, so you'll rarely find me using paint or ink. I've been known to say "I'm not a mister." I took the easy way out here too! I put my paper in a box and squirted just a couple times to get a little on the background paper. The box helped me with the mess and after I sprayed I rolled a paper towel roll across the cardstock to sop up the excess (less mess). This kept the paper from warping another one of my fears! I think the ink gave some texture and interest to my page - a bit of fun perhaps. I plan on trying it again - maybe next time with a mask.

For Donna, it's rub-ons. Yet she just couldn't resist these Studio Calico rub-ons.

I took Amy's Bits and Pieces challenge a couple of weeks back and I did so mainly for the rub-on part of the challenge. I don't really know why, but I just hardly ever use them. Because of that I hardly ever buy them anymore either - I have to be really tempted by the design. I tried to resist these days of the week rub-ons from Studio Calico but they got me in the end! Since a lot of what I tend to scrapbook is our everyday lives I figured I'd have a good chance of using them. For this page I just collected lots of my favorite shots from this spring so far. I hope I never forget these simple everyday moments. It's a huge part of why I scrapbook.

Amy tends to stick with flat embellishments on her pages, so for this layout, she challenged herself to use thick embellishments Bonus - she made them herself!

The "outside my box" thing I did was the flowers. I love this look but it makes me deeply anxious to have something that thick on a layout—so I've never done it before. What I discovered is that making the flowers was really fun. It let me dig into my stash of fabrics for patterns I couldn't have found in paper. Will I make something this thick again? Not often (because I'm still not certain how well it will fit into an album!) but yes, absolutely sometimes! (PS, I made the flower by cutting wavy strips of three different fabrics. Each strip is narrower than the next one. I sewed a gathering row of stitches---just the longest stitch your machine will do---gathered them, and then formed them into circles. I also broke out my glue gun to put it all together. This is also outside of my comfort zone, quite literally, as I always manage to burn myself when I use the glue gun. No exception with the flowers!)